Friendship is Blu
by Ted Wakeman
Summary: While practicing a normal teleportation spell, Twilight Sparkle unwittingly teleports a certain chaotic personality to another universe...right around the same time an odd group of birds arrive in Ponyville and turn the entire town upside-down.
1. Blu Sunday

**Hello everyone, whether a Rio fan or Brony!**

**To start, I'll make this clear. I love My Little Pony...Friendship is Magic, that is, xD. Definitely a fun show full of nostalgia, great voice acting and general solid script-writing.**

** To make another quality clear, I LOVE Rio. It's a beautiful film that always keeps me entertained and laughing. Can't describe enough my love for Rio.**

**This being the case, my recent love for both Friendship is Magic and Rio has lead to some brainstorming...and from brainstorming, I've come up with this very fic. While it may seem odd to crossover these two, I've thought it over long enough to figure out how it'd work, and how much fun the fic would be to write in general!**

**So, for the MLP fans reading, I suggest giving Rio a watch. It's an excellent film...and for all my buds back at the Rio community reading this, I suggest watching a few episodes of Friendship is Magic. Honestly, it's an excellent show...but enough of that.**

**Now, let's get this show on the road!**

**Chapter 1**

**Blu Sunday**

_It is almost a natural point when nature chooses someone's destiny._

_Whether aware or not, it comes to be definite history._

_In the general miracles, to the destiny of one's self,_

_always landing their stories on a bookcase shelf._

_Given to the individuals who suspect it less, _

_chosen because of spirit that is displayed above the rest._

_Whether pony or any other being, whether furred or winged,_

_destiny can be not a curious, but rather excellent thing._

"Oh gross...you actually read this gunk, Twilight?" A small green and purple dragon by the name of Spike muttered as he read the lines of yet another book that he found lying around. It was days like these when he had nothing to do when he would just senselessly browse through random books...and he wasn't enjoying this one at all.

"It's not 'gunk', Spike. It's literature, something you really need to become more familiar with..." Twilight Sparkle, a pony that had long been friends with Spike (And was even usually assisted by him in any of her work) replied from across the room. Spike rolled his eyes, expecting that kind of response from Twilight Sparkle.

"But I don't get it...What's so great about this destiny thing, anyway?" Spike asked, clearly ready to be bombarded by another round of explanation by Twilight Sparkle. After all, she was usually really good at that...

"What's 'so great' about it is that it really happens, Spike. It's not just an idea, it truly can happen...of course, sometimes it's just a matter of sticking to something, but in general it's something that can happen to anypony." Twilight Sparkle explained.

"Well...I guess that kind of makes sense...I just don't get why we've been through crazy stuff like fighting Nightmare Moon and stuff, but none of that 'destiny' stuff has happened to us..." Spike remarked rather skeptically.

"Oh come on, Spike. Sometime or another, everyone has some kind of destiny to look to. After all, what do you think the Sonic Rainboom that Rainbow Dash performed as a filly that gave us our Cutie Marks meant?" Twilight Sparkle offered, feeling she made a fair counter-point. However, Spike's face still stuck to his skeptical expression.

"...Coincidence?"

"You really shouldn't be so skeptical, Spike. Thinks like that happen all the time. We just don't know it because we're not there to see it for ourselves...Now try to be quiet for a bit. I'm trying to practice my teleportation spells..." Twilight Sparkle mumbled as she read through one of the many spell books she had in possession. Before you could even say "Princess Celestria", Twilight immediately took her magic abilities for a test-drive, and while she tried to teleport a nearby book on a bookshelf, the book suddenly combusted into flames, and then landed on the floor in a pile of ash.

"I think you need to practice more..." Spike remarked innocently, to which Twilight Sparkle shot a glare over to Spike in annoyance.

"Alright...let me try this one more time..." Twilight Sparkle remarked slowly, her horn glowing once more, ready to try the teleportation spell once again...before a certain mass of pink pony decided to disrupt her concentration...

"Hey Twilight!"

...

_Whether human or any other being, whether furred or winged,_

_destiny can be not a curious, but rather excellent thing._

"Wow Blu, you write that?"

Crowded around a rather small computer was a group of birds, two Spix macaws, a toucan, a red-crested cardinal and a canary.

"I wish I did...It's pretty interesting though, isn't it?" The Spix macaw named Blu said with excitement in his voice.

"Yeah...if you're into that dorky, spiritual stuff..." Jewel, the other Spix macaw responded with a laugh.

"Dorky? Well, that 'dorky, spiritual stuff' is actually quite interesting once you get the meaning of it." Blu responded back, as if the insulting of this poem was a personal insult to him.

"So, what's the meanin' of it?" Nico, the small canary asked in confusion. Blu thought for a moment, when both his expression and mind went blank.

"Uhh...Well, destiny means something or other about what you'll accomplish...that's the gist I get from it..." Blu admitted rather embarrassingly. Jewel rolled her eyes in response, doing it in both annoyance of her mate Blu dragging them to a computer to read a poem and in loving of the goof he was, thinking a poem had deep meaning when he didn't even know the meaning itself.

"That doesn't make sense. That means it's basically telling you what you need to accomplish. It doesn't give you any freedom in life of what decisions to make in your life. It's like telling a bird they're going to be a famous politician...they act like idiots just to accomplish something they never even wanted to do." Jewel offered, which actually irritated Blu a bit.

"First of all, destiny is more than just that. Destiny is something that's going to happen later in time that's...mostly predetermined." Blu responded as he clicked the mouse and keyboard madly on the computer.

"Second...why would a bird be a politician?"

"Where'd you get that from? A dictionary?" Jewel asked with a perked eyebrow...or what could seem like an eyebrow on a bird's expression. Blu frowned in response, and then lowered his head.

"...Kind of..." Blu admitted lowly, moving out of the way to reveal the site he was on, called 'WordBook', which was apparently an online dictionary.

"Well this got weird fast..." Pedro, the red-crested cardinal remarked with a snicker.

"I kind of see Blu's point, Jewel. After all, destiny seemed to have a way with you two love birds back when you first met..." Rafael the toucan said with a smile, his expression drawing a rolling of a pair of blue eyes from Jewel.

"Yeah, and then you went all 'Womanizer' with him..." Jewel remarked, to which Rafael grinned and shrugged his shoulders...or wings, rather.

"So, is destiny kinda like...Nature's crystal ball or somethin'?" Nico asked curiously. In response, Blu glanced out the window thoughtfully for some odd reason.

"Something like that...but I'm guessing it happens to everyone at some point. Maybe we might have something like it happen to us sooner or later?" Blu said thoughtfully, hopping onto the windowsill outside.

"Yeah, when horses fly." Pedro remarked as he suddenly popped up on Blu's head.

"Pedro, amigo, it's 'When pigs fly'." Nico corrected as he popped up next to Pedro above the Spix macaw's head as well.

"Really? Horses sounds better." Pedro said with dis-satisfaction in his voice, as if he wasn't informed of this fact.

"Why is everyone using my head as a doormat?" Blu suddenly asked in a rather annoyed tone, his eyes now in a half-glare expression.

"What's a doormat?" Pedro asked immediately.

"Look, I'd love to hear more about your whacked-out spiritual talk, but I kind of want to get going. We were going to find a nice place in the woods to relax today, remember?" Jewel asked with a slight-grating tone, obviously annoyed of this 'destiny' talk and more interested in what was currently going on. Blu thought for a moment, his face caught in a nervous grasp before Jewel nudged him in an annoyed way, triggering Blu to blubber out the answer she wanted to hear.

"Oh yeah! Like we agreed, haha..." Blu laughed lightly, trying to please his love hawk as much as he could. Blu loved her, he really did. However, she could _definitely_ be scary when she wanted to be...

"That's what I thought..." Jewel muttered as she spread out her wings with a small smile and flew off quickly into the forest, to which Rafael slowly walked up next to Blu.

"Woo, trouble in paradise huh?" Rafael asked with a small smirk, trying to have fun with his azul amigo.

"You can say that again...well, I guess we should head off." Blu sighed.

"_We?_ Who said anythin' about us being with you on a 'relaxation trip'?" Pedro asked, a tad creeped-out by Blu's statement.

"Pedro, he probably needs some help with finding a spot. I got a perfect suggestion for ya. Follow my lead, buddy!" Nico exclaimed suddenly as he took off with his light body and sped out ahead, to which Blu and Rafael took off.

"Wait up! I'm still trying to get used to this flying thing!" Blu yelled after the canary as he chased after the small bird to find where this 'spot' was.

"Wait up, Crystal Ball Boy!" Pedro yelled after as he lifted-off after the birds.

...

Back in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Pinkie Pie were all left in confusion of what exactly they'd just done. Everything seemed completely normal, but yet something felt...different thanks to the teleportation spell that Twilight had apparently used.

"...Well that didn't work." Spike finally concluded, realizing nothing visible had been effected by Twilight Sparkle's attempt at teleporting an object in the room.

"What didn't work?" Pinkie Pie asked, completely oblivious to anything that just occurred besides her popping in out of nowhere to interrupt Twilight Sparkle's concentration on her spell.

"Twilight Sparkle's teleportation spell...well, guess we'd better try something else, then." Spike concluded, before Twilight practically trampled him in a seemingly-insane state, bug-eyed eyes and all.

"What are you talking about? Something had to go somewhere! I've never used that kind of magic and NOT have something happen, Spike." Twilight Sparkle responded in a seemingly-paranoid state, as if it was a disaster that it didn't work. All the while, Pinkie Pie was taking it in with a smile, not understanding what exactly was being discussed.

"Just calm down. It's not like it's the end of the world..." Spike said as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"You don't get it, Spike. Magic that powerful has to go SOMEWHERE. Wherever it went, it just teleported it somewhere..." Twilight Sparkle said rather ominously.

"So...That means?" Spike asked, rather annoyed and frankly uncaring to the apparent situation.

"It means we need to figure out what was teleported out of here!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed as she suddenly ran to a bookshelf and began madly pulling out books with her telekinesis, practically flooding half the place in only a few seconds.

"Twilight! Calm down! It's probably nothing!" Spike shouted over the sound of thumping books drowning out everything and dust flying all around. It was only by luck that Spike and Pinkie were able to notice Applejack poke her head in from outside.

"Twilight? Wha-...oh," Applejack muttered, noticing the insane condition the place was in.

"Perhaps this is a bad time..."

"Of course it isn't! Twilight is just crazy!" Pinkie Pie replied rather cheerfully with her same trademark smile. Spike replied to this statement by simply staring at Pinkie Pie with a confused expression.

"_Just_?" Spike asked immediately with a confused tone.

"That's what I-" Applejack said before she quickly was pegged with a flying book, "-meant, Pinkie."

"Twilight, stop overreacting! We all know what happened the last time you did!" Spike exclaimed, stopping Twilight Sparkle dead in her progress of tearing books off the shelves.

"You're right! Nothing happened and everything is fine, hehehe!" Twilight Sparkle said with a strangely-disturbing laugh and a walled expression.

"Right...everything is perfectly normal, Twilight." Spike said with a smile, feeling self-accomplished for being able to keep his friend sane...at least, partly-sane judging by Twilight's expression.

"Not exactly, Spike. Only thing that ain't normal now is Twilight." Applejack remarked, who's point was proven quickly as the three sane beings in the room glanced over at Twilight Sparkle, who was currently curled into a fetal position in paranoia.

"What's fun about being normal? Being abnormal is the best!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with her normal cheery approach. Obviously, this wasn't helping as Spike walked over to Twilight Sparkle with an annoyed expression.

"How about this...You come outside, we'll go through Ponyville, figure out nothing happened, and you'll thank me for being right?" Spike said with a sudden grin, seeing this as a an opportunity, rather than a situation.

"Yeah...okay..." Twilight Sparkle nodded, her scary expression still glued shut onto her face as she got up and walked away.

"...This isn't going to end well, is it?" Spike asked himself aloud.

"I wouldn't count on it." Applejack responded back rather quickly.

"Well...I guess we'll just have to find out the same way we always do..." Spike muttered as him and Twilight Sparkle headed out the door slowly.

"Wait up Spike. If anythin' goes down, I don't want it endin' up like the whole doll thing again..." Applejack stated as she headed after the two out the door, leaving Pinkie Pie alone inside.

"Wait up guys! I want to see what happens when Twilight goes crazy again!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed excitedly as she bounced after the rest of the group, apparently excited for an insane outburst by her friend...

_...Only Pinkie Pie..._

...

Meanwhile, Blu and Rafael slowly trailed behind the rest of the birds, and for good reason. After all, Rafael just NEEDED to discuss with Blu why he should be more "into" the relationship. Frankly, it was the last thing Blu wanted to hear about.

"Rafael, can we PLEASE not talk about this? It's bad enough I'm desperate to find something to make this whole mating thing whole, but you telling me I need to be more 'into it' doesn't help..." Blu groaned as he glided slowly alongside his toucan buddy. This was indeed the case, as Blu and Jewel weren't exactly the greatest of mates after the whole incident with a certain cockatoo a while back. In fact, it was downright rocky. Blu had never had...this kind of feeling before, and it felt good for a while...but a while didn't last long enough, because now he was confused at what he was supposed to do in a relationship. It was complete Greek to a bird like him that had been cooped up in a bookstore in 'Tiny-sota' for the past fifteen years.

"C'mon amigo! You should take advice sometimes! Friends are there not just to make you look good, but to help you when you need help most...and right now, you need all the help you can get." Rafael remarked with a smile. Blu sighed audibly, confirming this statement didn't exactly make him feel better.

"Gee, that makes me feel better..." Blu muttered.

"Look Blu, you love her and she loves you...I'm pretty sure of it...Anyways, if that isn't love, I don't know what it is. All you have to do is stay by her side, support her in time of need and you're set! After all, it's worked for me the past...ten years!" Rafael answered back, trying to put a better light on the situation. Still, Blu seemed unsure of this.

"Look...I'll help you out with whatever you need. After all, hanging out with a best friend can help you learn a few things..." Rafael added.

"Well...alright. Look, I just want the best for us, and with the LEAST pain needed. After all, it took smashing into walls, being attacked by monkeys, getting choked by a cockatoo and almost dying to get where I am now..." Blu stated rather annoyed, thinking of the millions of things him and Jewel had to go through while being chained-together to be in the status they were at...then again, Rafael wasn't far off, Blu thought to himself.

After all, he DID need to stand by her. The two were "chained-to-each other birds". That title hadn't been taken, Blu thought. The toucan was even more righteous on the note of the two loving each other. Of course Blu loved her, and she loved him...maybe he'd been looking at this all wrong?

However, before Blu could think any more about it, something hit him...in the head...hard. This had turned out to be Pedro, who had smashed directly into Blu's head and sending the two crashing into a group of bushes.

"Pedro! Nico! What are you guys in a rush for?" Blu could hear Rafael ask from above as he rose out of the bushes. Before Blu could say a single word, Pedro and Nico were already in front of Blu, looking frantic and pale, almost as if they'd seen a monster.

"Blu! You gotta come quick! Something come outta nowhere! It had big ol'e ninja talons!" Pedro exclaimed with a terrified tone, as Nico then followed his exclamation up.

"Yeah, and a buncha' other things!" Nico exclaimed even louder, to which Blu began to silently wonder if this was their idea of a prank/shouting match.

"It was like half bird, half deer, half lion-" Pedro said, his voice trailing of as he tried to catch his breath as he attempted to list this apparent creature's attributes.

"That's a lot of halves..." Rafael remarked as he suddenly swooped down beside Blu.

"Guys, this isn't funny. Can we PLEASE get back to following Jewel?" Blu said rather coldly, sparking panicked expressions on Pedro and Nico's beaks.

"He doesn't believe us! We gotta go and save her!" Nico shouted as he grabbed Pedro by the wing and attempted to haul him off with him, before realizing his cardinal bud was easily much heavier than him.

"Wait, her? Jewel? Guys, stop fooling around. You're actually starting to scare me..." Blu stated rather nervously, realizing his friend's statements may not be so untruthful...after all, where **was** Jewel?

"We ain't foolin'! Jewel got kidnapped by this thing!" Pedro exclaimed, suddenly grabbing Blu and squeezing his head, trying to get the point across.

"Then why didn't you go after him?" Blu asked loudly.

"You kiddin'? He was scary lookin'!" Pedro whimpered like a little girl. Blu still wasn't sure about anything coming out of their mouths was true, but if Jewel WAS kidnapped...he had to get going...right about now.

"Come on! We need to help Jewel!" Blu said with a brave tone, soaring off into the direction Nico and Pedro had come from.

"Hold up, Blu! You're not taking on this weird thing by yourself!" Rafael called after him as him, Nico and Pedro fired off after the Spix macaw. Blu wasn't sure about rushing to an adversary and getting Jewel back like this. In fact, he was petrified of the idea. However, if that meant helping them become closer, it seemed like it'd be worth it...

...However, little did Blu know that there'd be a lot more to it than just saving her from this sudden chaos...

...

**A/N: Anddddd...cut! **

**Hope you enjoyed this introduction! I tried my best to keep everyone in-character, all the continuity in-check, and in general offer the exposition needed to kick start this fic! Hope you enjoyed, hope you'll stick around for more, and as always...**

**READ, ENJOY, REVIEW!**

**P.S.**

**To those who are curious, I was NOT aware of Twilight Sparkle's psychotic breakdown in the last new episode of FiM when I wrote this chapter...because I had already written that entire scene BEFORE Saturday. Sorry if it's a problem...just couldn't really edit it out, seeing as it is expository and has to be there for the sake of starting the story...**


	2. Not in Rio Anymore

**Hello once again!**

**Glad to see at least SOME reaction to the fic! Didn't expect much, considering...well, it's a crossover between FiM and Rio...I didn't envision it to gain any huge amounts of reviews. PLEASE prove me wrong!**

**Anyways, BACK TO THE STORY!**

**...**

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Not in Rio Anymore...**_

"So, you ready to admit I was right?"

This came right from the mouth of a very cocky Spike – he knew he seemed one-hundred percent right on his bet that nothing wrong happened as a result of Twilight's spell.

"Yeah yeah, don't rub it in," Twilight Sparkle grumbled, sounding much closer to her sane self than a few minutes before. Spike smiled contently, knowing he'd been right all along (as he usually did). Not a single pony was out-of-whack, and not a single tree or bush was moved or even poked.

"So, now that yer whole ordeal is over, you doin' anythin', Twi?" Applejack asked, which sparked a small silence among the group. After all, Twilight Sparkle hadn't exactly even had anything planned for the day. Rainbow Dash was busy maintaining her normal job of clearing the skies (and, as usual, was doing a fine job at it), Rarity was likely busy over-working herself again, Fluttershy was off somewhere with her animal friends; Twilight couldn't believe that it seemed nothing was happening today.

"I don't know. Is there anything we can even do?" Twilight Sparkle asked rather confused, to which Pinkie Pie's expression brightened, apparently concocting an idea the entire time, and quickly popped into the conversation.

"I know! I know! We can-"

"We're _not_making cupcakes..." Twilight Sparkle said with an annoyed tone, obviously objectionable to the idea of baking treats. Especially considering something was strange about Pinkie Pie and cupcakes...but it didn't matter. There was still nothing to do. Spike thought intensely, trying to think up something to do.

"Maybe Apple Bloom and her friends are doing something? They're always trying something hair-brained," Twilight Sparkle noted with a resolving voice. Before she could decide this was their official plan, Applejack interjected.

"No can do, Twi. Apple Bloom is with Rarity and the girls for the whole day," Applejack replied.

"Ugh! This is so boring! There's nothing to do!" Spike whined in a child-like tone.

"Come on, Spike. We must be able to find something. It's not like something will fall right out of the sky-" Twilight Sparkle was suddenly cut off by this thought, when suddenly the familiar rainbow-colored mane of a certain cyan Pegasus smashed into Twilight Sparkle, sending both of them flying through the air and then landing into a group of shrubs.

"Twilight! You okay?" Spike yelped, him and the other ponies with him running over to the crash site in the shrubs and gathering around it, when Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash both poked their heads out from the brush.

"Oww... Rainbow Dash, what in the world of Equestria is wrong with you?" Twilight asked rather irritated. Rainbow Dash formed a frown, ready to respond, when something else popped its head out from the bushes.

"What in the name of Celestia is that?" Applejack exclaimed, confused by the strange...thing they were looking at.

Before this strange occurrence had happened, Rainbow Dash was happily flying throughout Cloudsdale. While this was the case, work wasn't exactly expected of her today. After all, she'd already done that the very morning in only 10 seconds flat (or at least according to her it was).

The usual rush of bursting across the sky was particularly exhilarating today for Rainbow Dash. In fact...she felt like she almost couldn't stop. Before she could even think of stopping, she already had zoomed past several Pegasi as she thundered across the clear sky she had made for herself this very morning.

Rainbow Dash had normally thought how boring life must've been for Earth ponies, or any being without wings for that matter. All they could do was walk around while she could tear the skies and do anything she wanted. After all, wings offered a lot more than just airborne capabilities. It offered what many describe as 'freedom' and not having to rely on anypony. It was a feeling Rainbow Dash had grown accustomed to, and frankly she felt the need to have that today. So much so, she barely missed a few more Pegasi, one who was gray and looked on with a walled expression in confusion.

Before Rainbow Dash could relax and enjoy the freedom even more, she suddenly heard yelling for help echoing from somewhere nearby. While Dash was usually the lazy type, she wouldn't ignore cries for help or anything near that degree. However, this seemed to be coming from absolutely nowhere. In fact, it sounded more like a bird call than yelling.

"I must've spent too much time with Fluttershy. Now I'm imagining birds," Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself, shaking off the tweeting as her imagination. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case, as suddenly a small figure suddenly landed on top of the cyan-colored pegasus, adding an extra hue of blue to the pegasus as she quickly spiraled downwards towards Ponyville - more specifically, the body of Twilight Sparkle as the two ponies (along with whatever landed on Rainbow Dash) smashed together and went flying into the bushes.

Frankly, Rainbow Dash was having a great day to this point. While this did put a damper on it, she couldn't have possibly imagined what she crashed into would turn this damper into a river.

"Guhh...What happened last night?"

These low groans came from a small, blue bird that raised his head slowly, completely unaware of anything that had happened just before. Of course, this was one of the only two Spix macaws on Earth, Blu. Blu slowly raised his head as he rubbed it in its current sore state. The macaw finally opened his eyes rather tiredly, but they quickly sprang open like a set of doors. In front of him wasn't the familiar landscape of the dense Rio de Janiero jungle. No, it wasn't that at all. In fact, it didn't even look like reality. Rather, it looked almost like a dreamlike landscape. The lush trees were instead tall, strangely minimal-dimsensional looking. It was almost as if he was in a cartoon world of some sorts, like those strange Tex Avery cartoons he'd seen back in Minnesota.

A stream stood nearby Blu, and as the Spix quickly stood up to investigate, a flock of birds whizzed by. Instead of the color patterns, however, they looked smaller and much more cheery. Everything was too perfect and colorful. Blu looked into the reflection of the stream, and quickly noticed he was completely unchanged. Features and all were still intact, which he responded to with a sigh of relief. Though, he wouldn't be surprised if he been turned into a mouse by now with how little logic this all calculated to. After all, one second he'd been flying after Jewel, trying to figure out-

"Wait..." Blu said, stopping mid-thought. He finally remembered - he was trying to save Jewel from whatever it was that Pedro and Nico were telling him about. Blu remembered something of a confrontation, and then a huge, bursting light, and then he was suddenly here.

"I've got to be dreaming. There's got to be a part where I wake up, right?" Blu asked with a nervous smile, hoping his thoughts were correct. After all, this couldn't possibly be happening. There was no logical explanation, and frankly Blu was used to getting a logical explanation. After all, he was a bookworm (or bookbird, rather).

Before his train of thought could continue, it was brought to a screeching halt when the sound of a voice suddenly made him jump.

"Hello there..."

Blu gasped in shock, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the river. Before he could even think about what had surprised him, he was quickly flopping around and yelling in the stream.

"Ah! Help me!" Blu screamed loudly, to which he suddenly felt himself get picked up rather daintily and then dropped down slowly. Blu was even more confused after this, but he first focused on regrouping himself.

"There you go..." The same, soft-sounding voice said to Blu, which piqued his confusion up once again. Blu admittedly felt some embarrassment at the fact that he had to be rescued from a stream, but it sounded like this person who saved him was good; it was a person, right?

"You should really be more careful around water. Celestia didn't give us wings to swim..."

Blu suddenly perked his eyebrow at the mention of something called 'Celestia'. Suddenly, something made him think this person wasn't so normal after all. In fact, maybe it was a bird! Someone he could relate with and be helped by! After all, it did mention it having wings, so it had to be!

Blu spun around, expecting to see the feathers and beak of a bird, and instead was met with a sight that terrified Blu, as well as left him completely dumbfounded, complete with a gaping beak.

In front of him was a pony.

Blu's mind was blown. Sure, birds traditionally didn't have large brains, but Blu knew there was no explanation to accompany this. He was in a colorful, cartoon-like world with strange-looking birds and ponies. Even worse, the pony had wings. So, this was a Pegasus?

"...I have to be dreaming," Blu muttered to himself, his dumbfounded glance still fixated on the pink and yellow-colored Pegasus. She seemed rather kind from her cyan eyes and position, but this couldn't be right.

"Wait a minute, are you a Pegasus?" Blu asked clean out of the blue.

"Well...of course I am." She answered back, her tone still stuck in the shy-sound it had stuck to since she first said a word to him.

"...but, how is that possible? Pegasi don't exist! Are you sure you aren't just one of those hoaxes me and Linda would always see on TV like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster?" Blu asked as if he was interrogating a criminal. The Pegasus was clearly nervous to react to him, but she slowly answered back with an even more feeble-sounding tone.

"Of course we exist. How do you think the sky gets cleared every day?" The Pegasus offered in rebuttal. "...It's okay if you don't know, though..." Blu slapped himself in the face with his wing, trying to knock some sense into himself, his jaw now hanging even wider than before.

"T-that doesn't make a single bit of sense! What kind of science do you things run on? What rotates your planet? What raises the sun?" Blu asked madly, his mind racing into insanity every second, his eyes twitching madly.

"Oh, that's easy little friend. Princess Celestia does, and has done it for as long as I know," The pony answered shyly once again. Blu stared at the Pegasus with a completely bewildered look. In fact, it was beyond bewildered. It was complete shock and stupefaction. Blu suddenly felt his eye twitch once, and before he could even offer another reaction, he fell to the ground, passing out from the sheer logical breakdown his mind was going through.

"Oh my...Maybe I was too assertive..."

"Ay caramba..."

These were the first words spoken out of the strange bird that three particular fillies found lying in front of Carousel Boutique.

"It's dead, right?" Scootaloo, the orange and purple-colored Pegasus filly asked.

"It's talkin', ain't it? I don't think it's dead if it's talkin'," Apple Bloom, the filly with the Southern drawl responded back skeptically. Before they could wonder any more about the strange bird in front of them, Sweetie Belle suddenly decided it was a good idea to kick the bird.

"Sweetie Belle! Don't kick it!" Scootaloo scolded the white filly as she glanced at her fellow crusader with a surprised expression.

"But you said it was dead!" Sweetie Belle objected, the three not noticing the bird was now alive and well, standing up and staring at the group of fillies with an amused look.

"No I didn't! I _asked_ if it was dead!" Scootaloo answered back.

"Would you two stop arguin'?" Apple Bloom yelled, pushing her way in between the two arguing fillies while the strange bird watching them just sat and watched them go on.

"Why? Maybe that's our special talent?" Sweetie Belle suggested naively.

"Didn't we talk about this before? Who wants their special talent to be arguin'?" Apple Bloom responded, now sounding annoyed by the ensuing argument.

"Maybe we can give the bird CPR? We could be CPR-givers!" Scootaloo exclaimed, the same usual motion of ideas flowing through the little fillies' minds like clockwork. This was the normal commencing of each day for the group of fillies exhibited here, known as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Unlike many of the school fillies they knew, the three had not yet earned their 'cutie marks', or symbols of what they're most skilled at or love to do. This later sparked them to create their current group, known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. Every day, they'd try their hooves at something new, whether it be chiropractic actions, skydiving or the general practice of angering local animals in an attempt to befriend them.

"Is that what they're called? 'CPR-givers'?" Apple Bloom questioned.

"Of course they are! Now let's go, Cutie Mark Crusaders, and save this bird!" Scootaloo exclaimed in the most dramatic and heroic tone possible for a little filly like her.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CPR-GIVERS! YAY!" The three exclaimed loudly together. This loud exclamation came at no extra charge with their antics that would follow after it, but it provided a display that absolutely drew attention.

"Woah, woah! Ladies, there's enough Rafael to go around!" A voice said from behind the Crusaders, surprising the heck out of them. The three fillies spun around quickly to come face-to-beak with the same bird they planned to give CPR to just three seconds ago. The "crusaders" simply gave confused glances at each other, then back at the bird, who simply smiled.

"...Did that bird just talk?" Scootaloo said with an arched brow, finally breaking the silence.

"Of course I talked, meninas," The toucan answered back nonchalantly. The three fillies still sat in shock, surprised that a bird was talking to them in the first place. Rafael glanced at the three young ponies with a confused expression, and then chuckled to try and lighten the mood.

"Are you girls okay?" Rafael asked with an uneasy tone, waving his wing in front of the three, expecting a reaction.

"How are you talkin'?" Apple Bloom suddenly asked in a interrogative voice. Apple Bloom wasn't familiar with every type of animal, but the Sweet Apple Acres had enough for Apple Bloom to be able to tell a bird talking wasn't normal. Rafael was suddenly confused by this pony's confusion. Rafael decided to have a bit of fun with the young ones in front of him.

"I use my beak, open and close it and speak." Rafael said with a laugh, seeming to annoy the yellow filly rather than entertain her.

"Maybe birds can talk to us and we just didn't know? Fluttershy seems to do it pretty well," Sweetie Belle suggested. Scootaloo rolled her eyes in response to this suggestion, while Apple Bloom seemed to buy into it the idea a bit.

"You reckon? Maybe that's our special talent?" Apple Bloom said with building excitement in her voice and spirit, but was dashed quickly by Scootaloo.

"I wouldn't count on it. Still no Cutie Mark." Scootaloo groaned, the same process going the same way for the Crusaders as always. Trying something new led to a possible skill, and then led to nothing more than the same blank flank that met their gaze after every attempt.

"Well, why don't we try cattle wranglin'? Big Sis seems real good at that." Apple Bloom said rather excitedly, apparently looking forward to jump to this suggestion.

"Sounds good to me! Better than talking to birds. Who wants a Cutie Mark of a bird anyway?" Scootaloo responded with the same tone as she began to take off.

"Hey, what's with all the dissin'? I didn't say anything bad about ponies." Rafael replied back, feeling rather offended by the discussion unfolding that seemed focused on his unimportance.

"Pardon me, Mr. Bird, but we just ain't interested in talkin' to birds," Apple Bloom said tersely to the Toco Toucan.

"Hey, do I look boring? I've got a million different stories to tell. We may not look like much, but I can tell you we're more interesting than we look," Rafael countered with a laugh.

"Maybe he can help us get our Cutie Marks?" Sweetie Belle suggested with her usual, innocent smile. Apple Bloom glanced at Sweetie Belle with a perplexed expression, and then decided on what to do.

"Huddle!" Apple Bloom suddenly said, grabbing the two Crusaders and forming themselves into a huddle while Rafael just looked on with an odd expression.

"These girls sure are loco..." Rafael muttered as he awaited the girls' response.

"You really reckon he could help us get our Cutie Marks?" Apple Bloom asked, sounding half-suspicious and oddly half-excited.

"I don't think so. How can we trust a bird for our Cutie Marks?" Scootaloo objected rather in an annoyed tone, obviously wanting to move onto something else.

"Scoot, you thought giving a bird CPR was going to get us a Cutie Mark," Apple Bloom said with a furrowed brow. Scootaloo suddenly realized she was beaten in this discussion, and laughed embarrassingly in response.

"Let's just go with your plan," Scootaloo said with a fake grin plastered onto a feeling of embarrassment.

"'Right then!" Apple Bloom turned towards Rafael. "Wadda ya say, little guy? Can you help us get our Cutie Marks?" She seemed to put a lot of trust into her tone towards Rafael. Rafael glanced at Apple Bloom with an amused grin and then leaned over to glance at the other two fillies.

"Well, I'd love to help, amiga, but I have no clue what a Cutie Mark is," Rafael said with a laugh, thinking of the situation as hilarious. Now, the embarrassed grin quickly flip-flopped to Apple Bloom's face, and a groan and frown escaping from Scootaloo.

"What was that about him helping us get our Cutie Marks?" Scootaloo groaned. Apple Bloom frowned at this remark and then began to walk away.

"Hey ladies, I'll still help! After all, Rafael won't leave anyone behind! Birds of a feather stick together. Or...things that are animals...stick together?" Rafael suggested, fumbling with his word choice to a point where he clearly gave up as his voice trailed off.

"Pardon me kindly Mister, but how will you be able to help us when you don't have a darn clue of what a Cutie Mark is?" Apple Bloom asked, turning around with a bit of hope forming in her.

"We can teach him about Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. Rafael simply responded with a shrug of his wings and a rash smile. He obviously wanted to help, whether stripped of prior knowledge or non-understanding of what was going on or where he was. The toucan figured he'd find his way around if he stuck with these little ponies.

"Teach about what we don't have? Is that even possible?" Scootaloo asked skeptically.

"Look, it's all we got. You got any better ideas, Scoot?" Apple Bloom asked, rather annoyed by her friend's constant arguing.

"So Mister-" Sweetie Belle began, ready to introduce herself before the self-proclaimed 'lady's bird' interrupted her.

"The name is Rafael, ladies. At your service for any...'Cutesy Mark' issues you have!" Rafael exclaimed, attempting to get their trust in full circle. After all, he'd probably be sticking with them for a while.

"Good to meet ya, Mr. Rafael. Name's Apple Bloom!" Apple Bloom greeted. The yellow filly did mentally note to herself that Rafael was an unusual name for a creature in Equestria, especially a bird.

"My name's Sweetie Belle!" The white-colored filly said in her usual cheerful tone and adorable green eyes to accompany it.

"And my name is Scootaloo!" Scootaloo piped-in loudly.

"WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" The three fillies cheered loudly in their normal fashion as they did before undertaking another attempt at gaining what they looked for most, their Cutie Marks.

Rafael simply snickered at the cuteness of this group of girls. They seemed innocent and youthful; a lot like his kids. That reminded him of something, however.

"Okay, nice to meet you girls. Now, can we get going? I'd love to help, but I've got a family to take care of back where I'm from," Rafael said with a nervous laugh, realizing how mad Eva would be discovering he was far off in wherever this place was. In fact, where was Blu? Or Jewel? Or Pedro and Nico? Where was any of the birds he knew, for that matter?

"Maybe we can find Twilight Sparkle and she can teach you all about Cutie Marks?" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"...Twilight Sparkle?" Rafael asked with a absolutely-confused expression. He couldn't understand who could have a name that strange. Before he could wonder anymore about this matter, however, another matter arose with the one shout from a certain nearby mare.

"_Girls!_"

The group of four quickly took attention to this shout, which sounded as if it came from inside the Carousel Boutique. All of the fillies were easily able to identify it by the unmistakable English accent.

"Macacos me mordam! She sounds madder than Eva when I'm late to the nest!" Rafael remarked with a terrified expression. The Cutie Mark Crusaders simply responded with this remark with confused looks.

"What's an Eva?" Scootaloo immediately asked.

"Ehh, you don't wanna know..." Rafael said with a sly smile. They'll probably learn what an 'Eva' is once they get older, Rafael figured. It happened to every lady eventually.

"Whoever Eva is, it can't be as bad as my sister Rarity when she's mad," Sweetie Belle said with a look of fear plastered onto her green eyes. Rafael was about to inquire who Rarity was, before his answer was given as soon as the door to the boutique swung open.

...

Meanwhile, across Ponyville, a loud noise erupted from Sugarcube Square, which was currently unoccupied - aside for two small birds and a certain alligator.

"AHH! RUN MAN!" A shout echoed from inside as two shapes of birds fired past the window. These birds quickly ducked behind a small bathtub and held their position, both huffing and puffing to catch their breaths.

"Dude, what was that thing?" The yellow bird piped-out, the familiar voice of Nico escaping between inhales of breath and his glances back in a terrified state.

"It looked like a dragon or somethin'! I ain't going back out there, man!" Pedro shrieked, his face plastered with the same expression of horror on his beak.

"I don't blame ya! That thing is ganna eat us alive! Me for an appetizer, and then you for the main course!" Nico said in fright, suddenly fueling the burning fire called "hysteria" in Pedro's mind.

"Nuh uh! I'm getting my tail outta here!" Pedro answered back matter-of-factly. As soon as he turned, however, he was suddenly met with what looked like huge, purple marbles...however, Pedro quickly realized what they really were as soon as they blinked.

"AHH! MONSTER!" Pedro shrieked like a little girl as he thundered past Nico in a blur of red and black, leaving his canary bud staring straight at the supposed 'monster', which oddly looked like a cute alligator to an eye beside a bird's.

"Uhhh...don't eat me, man! I'm not too chewy! These wings have got all bone and no meat! You don't wanna eat me!" Nico said between nervous laughs, backing up slowly at every word. The alligator, however, only reacted with a simple blink of his eyes.

"Dang! There's some kinda wall of energy keepin' us in here!" Pedro yelled from across the room, continuously smacking into a window in an attempt to break the 'wall of energy'.

"Look, bud, I don't know what we did to you reptile guys, but I'm sorry if we did anything! If we stole any of ya fruit or somethin', we didn't mean it!" Nico said with pure fears striking his tone. In response, the alligator once again blinked with the same stare from his purple eyes.

"He ain't lettin' us leave! We're stuck in his yellow dungeon of doom!" Pedro yelled in an extremely uncharacteristic tone for the cardinal as he began to desperately pound on the window. Now that Pedro had mentioned, the room certainly was yellow. In fact, it was almost downright girly. Nico almost started to wonder if they were in the wrong here, before the alligator began waddling over towards them.

"Ah! Get us out of here, amigo!" Nico shrieked to Pedro as he attempted to get higher off the ground to keep distance from the 'beast' below them. However, the alligator held his stoic, cold expression. Nico's terrified expression suddenly stopped in its tracks, and began to bend into a confused look.

"Hey Pedro, how come he ain't chasing us?" Nico asked as he fluttered down to the wooden floor along with Pedro, who held a similar expression on his beak.

"I dunno... Yo reptilian dude! How come you ain't trying to eat us?" Pedro exclaimed, waving his wing in front of the alligator wildly, trying to attract its attention.

"Huh, maybe this guy is cool after all." Nico said with a positive tone forming in his voice. Pedro was about to object, but his canary friend continued, and moved closer to the alligator to the point where he was literally resting on the small gator's body.

"That such a good idea, Nico?" Pedro asked, still mentally confused to the fact that the alligator seemed completely uninterested in...anything, apparently.

"C'mon, man! Alligators can't be cool?" Nico asked with a smile as he leaned on the alligator, the same blank expression stuck to his face.

"Just don't let him near me – I'm allergic to weird crocodile stuff," Pedro said with a skeptical tone.

"He's an alligator, amigo. Different snout," Nico said with a smirk. Pedro stared blankly at Nico with the feelings of punching his friend in the face, but he held back knowing that somehow he'd probably already had the croco- alligator on his side.

"So...where are we?" Pedro asked, glancing around the yellow-colored bathroom.

"It looks like a bathroom," Nico joked with a smirk.

"Man, you're on fire today," Pedro laughed, which Nico couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not.

"So, where the heck are we anyway?" Nico asked, glancing around the room curiously. As he previously stated, it was definitely a bathroom. The walls were graced with an odd mix of yellow and earth-coloring, and the tub in the middle of the room seemed oddly placed to a person like you or me, but Nico couldn't bother to note. He was a bird, after all. There were two windows, and a small sink that was oddly pink.

"I dunno man, but I wanna get out and find...JEWEL!" Pedro suddenly exclaimed, realizing their proceeding situation before being stuck here.

"Ah! You're right! Jewel was nabbed by that...thing!" Nico yelled, suddenly back into panic mode as the two birds sped around madly, while the alligator simply stared at the two, completely uninterested apparently.

"Look, it's still Rio! Blu and Rafael are still out there, probably looking for her and that...whatever that bird thing was," Nico reasoned, acting an emotion of calmness and failing miserably at it.

"Bird? That wasn't a bird, amigo!" Pedro exclaimed, grabbing his canary bud by the wings and shaking him madly, obviously scared to even mention the creature they'd been graced with the image of.

"Bird, airplane or plant thing, whatever ya wanna call it! Let's go find some birds to help us out!" Nico responded as he took off towards the window, before realizing the window would likely not open from the force of two birds, let alone a small bird like himself.

"That psychic wall ain't breakin', man. I'll try going through the walls!" Pedro exclaimed confidently, before facing a wall and rushing towards it, and bouncing off like a rubber ball off a brick wall.

"Ow! That hurt," Pedro whined as he rubbed his beak, before trying it again, coming up with the same results.

"A few more of those and maybe it'll knock some sense into ya!" Nico exclaimed with a clever grin as he attempted to budge the window open.

"Very funny, bird! Now help me with the walls!" Pedro yelled as he smacked into the wall again, still not coming up with results. Obviously, Pedro's logic led him to try the next wall.

"Nah. Looks fun though!" Nico laughed with sarcasm streaming his voice.

"Hey, what are we gonna name our gator bud?"

Pedro glanced back at the alligator, who still sat stone-still in the middle of the room, before suddenly opening his mouth and chomping down on a small piece of candy on the ground.

"How about 'Tick Tock'?" Pedro suggested, to which his canary buddy gave him a look of confusion.

"Amigo, that was a crocodile," Nico responded, his beak graced with the still-confused expression.

"What are you talkin' about, amigo? I'm talkin' about that song!" Pedro quipped, before ramming himself back into the wall.

"Yeah, but buddy, that's the name of a-" Nico started, before getting cut off by another smack into the wall by the cardinal. "Never mind. I wanna name him Louie, though."

"Why?" Pedro called back, making his way to yet another wall, this being his fourth wall for breaking attempts.

"I dunno, just sounds good," Nico said with a grin, before his eyes jumped open when a smash echoed through the room, catching Nico's attention. As he could suddenly see, Pedro was successful at this attempt.

"Check it out! I broke the fourth wall!" Pedro exclaimed with self-accomplishment in his tone as he then began his attempt to break free of the wall he'd gotten stuck in.

"You sure did, amigo," Nico said, holding back a snicker as he watched his cardinal buddy struggle to pry himself out of the wall. After a bit of struggling and position-tweaking, Pedro easily slipped out of the hole, leaving a circle-shaped indent behind on the wall.

"You think the alligator has house insurance?" Pedro asked nervously as he observed the mark he let on the wall.

"I dunno, but I'm findin' out where we are," Nico said with a laugh as he popped his head into the hole and saw...something.

"Uh, Pedro..." Nico said, his voice stifled thanks to his head being on the other side of the wall, which made Pedro have to desperately hold back a laugh.

"What's wrong amigo?"

"I don't think we're in Rio anymore."

"What makes ya say that?" Pedro asked back, now rather confused by his friend's sudden conclusion. Then again, this room looked a bit too colorful for any normal human's taste, Pedro theorized quietly.

"Pink ponies. That's what."

...

The odd sensation of gaining consciousness was indeed new to Jewel. Of course, as she imagined, it wasn't enjoyable at all. As the haze cleared from the Spix macaw's head, Jewel raised her head shakily, suddenly feeling the sting of the mid-day sun – but that couldn't be possible, Jewel thought. It was just about twilight when Blu and her had head out, before she was attacked by that [i]thing[/i].

Jewel finally popped her head out of the bushes, to quickly meet the gaze of two huge, round, green eyes.

"...What in the name of Celestia is _that_?"

Jewel's eyes and ears perked open in sudden shock all at once as soon as she realized that this pair of eyes didn't belong to a bird. In fact, it wasn't even human. It was a pony.

"It's a bird, Applejack, duh," a cyan pony right beside Jewel said in the same bush she was in. Jewel, given some time to observe, hazily glanced around to see the entire bush she and this cyan pony were in was surrounded by a group of different-colored ponies. Jewel suddenly questioned whether she should've accepted that offer of a drink out of a Styrofoam cup from those seagulls.

"I know that, Dash. I just never seen anythin' like it," The green-eyed pony responded, eying Jewel with a clear look of suspicion in her round eyes.

"Ever heard of a thing called personal space? You're invading it right now," Jewel stated with a lack of emotion, thanks to the facts she'd been knocked out only minutes before. Suddenly, all the ponies surrounding them gasped in shock after she spoke, as if she suddenly grew a second head that spoke French.

"That bird just talked, right?" The cyan pony piped out after a good few seconds of shocked silence.

"How in the hay are you talkin', little critter?" The southern-drawled pony staring in front of her asked. Jewel groaned in annoyed tone. One moment she'd been minding her business, wanting to have a nice time with her mate, when suddenly a weird creature captured here and suddenly she was sitting in the middle of a group of ponies. What else could possibly break her understanding of things in the last 10 minutes?

"First of all, don't call me 'little critter'," Jewel stated sternly, attempting to regain her balance, which her legs greeted her with a feeling of movement, which was a good sign at least. "Second, where am I? I know for a fact I'm not in Rio." She didn't care to answer any question posed by some pony and more intent to find answers to her problem.

"Is that bird talking?" a purple-hued pony asked suddenly, apparently late to the news of this as she got up from the ground after the initial crash with the cyan pony.

"No, someone's performing a magic trick," Jewel piped back sarcastically. The purple pony frowned in response to her joke and then walked nearer to the Spix macaw.

"Well, Applejack, judging from color and size, it looks like a species called the 'Spix macaw'," the purple pony stated matter-of-factually.

"Spix? Shoot, never heard of that kinda bird," The Southern-drawled pony stated tersely.

"That's why we have Fluttershy, right?" The cyan pony said with a grin and a snicker. Jewel, however, was now extremely irritated by all of this. No one was giving her any answers to anything, and an explanation was absolutely needed after the Spix macaw had already seen unicorns and Pegasi talking to her.

"Would you mind telling me the fastest way to get out this place?" Jewel asked the green-eyed pony, her emotion returning to the worst state possible - annoyance.

"First of all, name's Applejack. Second, what's the rush?" Applejack replied, getting annoyed herself by how this strange bird was acting.

"Look, I'd love to chit-chat with the residents of a one-horse town, but I need to get back to where I belong, in Rio. Like nature intended..." Jewel replied sternly as she attempted to open her wings to take off into the sky, but the still-lurking feeling of numbness stopped her short, and sent her beak smacking back to the dirt ground in front of all the ponies.

"Hey! What are you callin' a one-horse town?" The cyan pony replied with a sound of offense in her voice. As she left the bush, it suddenly became apparent to Jewel that this cyan pony was actually a Pegasus. Just more fun to the party.

"Now now, Rainbow Dash. The poor thing is probably confused about where it is. This is probably the thing I teleported," the purple-colored unicorn stated with relief in her voice as she gazed down at Jewel, her look of observation and understanding seeming to sink into Jewel's thoughts. It was odd, Jewel thought, that a pony had such power in an expression. Then again, it made about as much sense as anything else that had occurred in the past couple moments, Jewel thought to herself.

"This is going to be a _long_ day," Jewel groaned with an annoyed tone.

That may have been the biggest understatement of the year...

...

A/N:

I HAVE to thank my best bud Travis or editing this chapter! Hope you enjoyed this hard work, Happy Thanksgiving and like always...

**READ, ENJOY, REVIEW!**


	3. Odds and Ends

**Hello once again, faithful and new!**

**I'm incredibly happy to see some attention focused to the story, as I honestly wouldn't BEGIN to imagine a crossover, ESPECIALLY a FiM/Rio crossover to get much attention. Keep reading and keep up the comments! Thank you and enjoy this third chapter!**

**...**

_Chapter 3_

Odds and Ends

Blu didn't welcome the feeling of complete unconsciousness. In fact, it felt like being a ghost. His whole abdomen was numb, his wings were sore from minimal usage for a long while, and his head beat like a relentless drum, his ears ringing every second.

The sound of some sort was recoiling his ears as well. It sounded like a patter of feet that wound every once in a while in Blu's ears like a worn tape. The sensation of sound was a nice welcome and good sign, but Blu was so confused as to where he was he couldn't bother to be thankful for it.

Finally, the sound of a door lightly shutting ironically convinced Blu that he should check what his current situation was. However, before he could attempt to raise his head any more than a few precious inches, the knocking in his head beat it down back to a surprisingly-soft pillow cushion.

_"Don't worry, little bird. You'll be better in no time...just get some rest..."_

Blu was strangely hypnotized by this soft voice that suddenly took up residence near him, from what he could interpret. Blu suddenly began hoping that maybe this was a person who worked at the bird sanctuary? Maybe that pony thing was just a dream? Maybe even...it was Jewel...

"I had this horrible dream...I was in some other place where nothing made sense, and there was a Pegasus..." Blu groaned out, taking a second shot before the pain stung him back.

"Well, it's alright now. You're back in good old Equestria..."

_Wait...that doesn't sound right,_ Blu thought to himself urgently.

"Equestria?" Blu yelped, his tone magnifying loudly as he reared his head up and ripped his eyelids open. Next to his bed was none other than the same Pegasus that greeted him before. The Pegasus gave a bashful expression back as Blu only gawked in a glued look of surprise. After a good 3 seconds of awkward silence, Blu did the only thing he could think of at this point – Run.

Blu, without thinking, burst out of the bed and quickly toppled onto the floor. The Spix macaw then beat his wings once to test, and was quickly off into the air, heading straight to the door with the Pegasus daintily trailing behind him.

"Oh my! Where are you going?"

Blu, ignoring any words from the insane Pegasus behind him, was about to grace the door, when he realized the sudden ache in his wings as he began to lose altitude, and without any more hesitation, the macaw somersaulted onto the wooden floor and rolled into the door, adding insult to injury in his attempt.

"Oh dear. Are you okay?" The Pegasus asked, her voice still plastered with the constant kind and gentle tone.

"I was until you kidnapped me!" Blu piped in response as he quickly tried to get up to try to open the door to get out. However, he tripped before he could even take two rapid steps.

"Kidnap?" She asked in surprise as she landed besides Blu. With a groan and an expression of defeat, Blu picked himself off the floor and was finally able to get a decent look at the Pegasus, as the first time he was too dumbfounded she was there to observe. The Pegasus was rather a delicate-looking one, white coat to couple with a pink mane and the tiniest, most innocent blue eyes Blu had ever seen. The long gazing between the two seemed to take its awkward toll, until finally Blu responded back.

"Yes, kidnap! I have no idea where I am," Blu said, as if he'd been violated in some way, which in his little mind he felt he was.

"Oh, I wasn't trying to hurt you...I was only trying to take care of you after you fainted...If that's okay..." The Pegasus offered timidly in response, her ears folding back as she retreated physically ever-so-slightly. Blu quickly took notice of this, and realize he was indeed pushing it a bit. After all, she'd only shown him hospitality and nothing less of it. Perhaps he did have the capacity to understand?

"A-alright, sorry. Can you just _please_ tell me who you are and why I'm here?" Blu asked, his tone filled with annoyance but his mind equating to some understanding. The Pegasus lightly nodded, her position of fear unfurling slightly.

"I'm sorry little bird. I only wanted to help..." She said, her tone barely above a whisper. This struck Blu as unusual, but he didn't mind for the fact that he'd lived in a library for fifteen years in Minnesota. It wasn't like he wasn't used to such an idea of quiet voices.

"It's fine. My name's Blu," Blu said, his beak bending into a small, greeting smile.

"I'm Fluttershy..." The pony said with the sweetest smile Blu had ever seen forming on her face. Blu had to admit, he'd never seen a more timid and cute thing in his life. _Animal Planet really didn't serve ponies justice_, Blu noted to himself.

"So where exactly am I, again?" Blu asked as his gaze roved around the cottage he was in, which was organized in a neat fashion, which many different animals staring at the Spix macaw, which brought uneasy feelings upon Blu.

"Oh, you must be a Southern bird. You're in Ponyville," Fluttershy responded kindly, which was not taken into account by the macaw for the fact that he was baffled by two facts, one being the fact there could be a town called that, and two that it was likely not in any considerable range of Rio de Janeiro, wherever 'Ponyville' was, exactly.

"Look, I'm real grateful for all your caring, but I'm a bit lost. One second I was happily living in Rio, and now I'm stuck in...?" Blu hesitated, not exactly remembering the name of this town word-for-word, but Fluttershy was more than happy to correct.

"Ponyville?" Fluttershy said with a sweet smile that looked smooth as silk.

"Yeah. Now excuse me, I need to get going," Blu continued as he prepared to take off before the door closed, confusing the Spix macaw slightly.

"Why such a hurry?" Fluttershy asked with her whisper-like tone and a cheery smile. Blu rolled his eyes, the cheerful attitude now starting to get on his nerves.

"Well, the last thing I remember was being attacked by a monster, so I have good reason to be in a hurry," Blu stated back rather skeptically with a frown. At the mention of 'monster', Fluttershy quickly let out a small shriek and ducked under the bed Blu had just been residing in. Blu cocked his head lightly, confused as to what offended the Pegasus.

"...D...did you say...m-monster?" Fluttershy asked with a shivering tone, her trembling eyes the only visible part of her from the macaw's standpoint.

"...Uhh, I guess?" Blu answered in a confused tone.

"Oh my...sounds serious." The timid Pegasus sighed as she began to crawl out from under the bed.

"You're telling me...Look, thanks for everything! I'm going to try and figure out where I am," Blu said with a cheery tone and smile faked perfectly. Before the Spix could make it to the door, however, Fluttershy was able to fly in front of him.

"Wait! You don't have to leave. After all, you are a guest...If that's alright with you..." Fluttershy offered lightly, when oddly enough a group of birds crowded around Blu, which left him in a sea of beaked smiles staring at him. Blu glanced around at all the birds, a look of confusion, then fear, and finally a small smile formed as he reached out his claw to greet these birds.

"Look, I'd love to stay, but I'm trying to find my friends." Blu responded with a slightly annoyed tone. This Pegasus was starting to get on his last nerves...

"You lost your friends? Oh my..." Fluttershy gasped in a concerned tone. Blu nodded slowly in return, trying to mask his annoyed feelings.

"Well, I'm going to try and find them. See ya!" Blu said with a smile as he attempted to navigate himself around Fluttershy. However, the Pegasus wasn't fact, she seemed to be hesitating a bit, as if...

"Uh oh...don't tell me you're going to sing a song..." Blu sighed, knowing the signs of Fluttershy's expression changing was a sure sign of...

"_Can't you stay a while? There's things for me to show..._"

Blu sighed, clearly aware he was going to have to play along with the timid Pegasus. After all, if it got him out of here, it was fine by him.

"_I can't stay much longer, I really have to goooooooo,_" Blu sang in a slightly out-of tune voice – he wasn't prepared to sing today.

"_A few more minutes, no more than four?_" continued Fluttershy.

"_All this flying and confusion are making my wings sore!_"

"_Please, be our guest! Friendship and caring, we are best!_"

"_I'm not staying; give it a rest,_

"_Because while I'm not the one for complaining,_

"_My friends' fates, I'm still awaiting!_" sang Blu.

"_You don't have to stay for a while,_

"_we'll bend that beak into a smile!_" smiled Fluttershy.

"_There's so much time, but yet so little,_

"_Only time to find my friends, no time for drivel!_" noted Blu.

"_I have so many friends for you to meet!_" offered Fluttershy.

"_This is a catastrophe for me, not a meet and greet!_"

"_Birds of a feather stick together!_"

"_Please, that's a tired phrase!_"

"_You are the guest, and I am the host-_"

"_Then let me out, that's what I want the most!_

"_Because I was kidnapped, and you're the one to blame!_

"_I don't know why, don't know how, but I'm really not tame!_" complained Blu.

"_Stop denying, it's as clear as the bell that rings!_

"_I just keep telling you, I didn't kidnap a thing!_" denied Fluttershy.

"_Even then, you're MAKING! ME! SING!_" pointed out Blu, as he concluded the song.

"Oh, was I making you sing?...Sorry..." Fluttershy whimpered, her ears folding back to her head as she lowered her head in self-apparent shame. Blu groaned in response, but then softened his expression a bit.

"It's fine. Can I just leave now? I really need to find my friends...and my mate," Blu muttered as he thought of what could've happened to his friends, Jewel the most. He loved her dearly, and if anything were to happen to her... Blu couldn't imagine what he'd do.

"Oh dear, you lost your mate?" Fluttershy asked, her expression quickly flipping to panic.

"Yes," Blu said in response with a roll of his eyes. Blu couldn't help but feel that this conversation was grating.

"Then we should go find her! No creature should be separated from their mate!" Fluttershy exclaimed, or at least what was an exclamation in her mind. To Blu, it was a simple statement, which also happened to be the obvious sort to the Spix macaw.

"Yeah, way ahead of you..." Blu answered in a bored tone, attempting to take the conversation into a direction of his favor, as in finding Jewel, and then getting the heck out of this place.

"Then let's go find her! We can't let you two be apart for another second!" Fluttershy said urgently as she fluttered past Blu quickly, leaving Blu's expression to turn to annoyance.

"It took a song for you to figure that out?" Blu asked with a single flap of his wings as he took off after the timid Pegasus.

The door to the Carousel Boutique swung wide open, glowing with a blue aurora, as Rafael watched with a confused expression as the formerly-energetic fillies near him seemed to be cowering from the aggrevated-looking, dripping-wet white mare that now stood before the group. This was Rarity...probably, Rafael deduced.

"Girls, would any of you like to tell me who thought it'd be _hilarious_ to prank me?" Rarity asked, her face full of steaming anger, as if ready to explode open. It was only clear after a second that Scootaloo was now sporting an incredibly-wide and nervous grin.

"Uhh...Pinkie Pie?" The orange filly suggested, her tone shaky and obvious of her disguising of her action. Rafael let out a small chuckle as soon as he realized what was about to happen.

"You girls really do need to learn when you're caught red-hooved," Rarity stated with a motherly tone to her voice, as if scolding children. Then again, she technically was.

"But I didn't do it! It was all Scootaloo's idea!" Sweetie Belle whined objectionably. The two other fillies then exchanged dumbfounded expressions and then turned to Sweetie Belle of looks of disbelief.

"That's a load'a hay if I've ever known one! You were totally part of it, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. As the three fillies argued, Rarity simply watched with a plain expression, simply wondering when the three would realize they were all to blame, while the toucan simply sat and watched with the same beaked grin graced across his face.

"I'm not sure whether to be confused, or to be entertained!" Rafael piped over to Rarity, expecting a casual response. Instead, however, Rarity's eyes flung open as she quickly spun her head to meet Rafael's gaze.

"...Did that bird just talk?" Rarity asked, her voice lined with a familiar sound of shock and fear.

"_Pelo amor de Deus_, why does everyone keep asking that?" Rafael asked with an annoyed tone.

"Maybe it's because birds don't talk? ...not in these parts, at least," Apple Bloom offered, as the three fillies had suddenly taken back their attention to Rarity and Rafael.

"How is this even possible! Birds aren't supposed to talk!" Rarity suddenly exclaimed, sounding more immature now than the fillies she'd been scolding a moment ago.

"Well, apparently we can talk!" Rafael said with a laugh as he lifted himself off the ground and landed on Rarity's back, before she quickly shook the toucan off frantically.

"Get away! Who knows what kind of..._things_ made you talk?" Rarity said with an odd sound of fear streaking her voice; at least, what Rafael could think was fear, considering her accent was so odd to him he could make out about half of her words. However, his mind was more focused on the fact of the confusion over him talking.

"_Eita_! Is it suddenly so wrong for a bird to have a perfectly handsome set of vocal chords?" Rafael asked, his voice sounding in a huff but graced with a hint of a chuckle. Frankly, Rarity was so baffled at this point she couldn't respond properly for a few solid seconds.

"It is when that bird starts talking. I don't know where you came from, but in Equestria it isn't exactly normal for a bird to talk," Rarity explained rather in a lecture-like tone.

"Equestria? What kind of place is named 'Equestria'?" Rafael asked, his voice frazzled with confusion and a touch of baffled feel.

"A place where birds don't talk," Rarity responded rather quickly with a knowing smile that usually graced her pretty young face.

"Aye caramba! You amigas are loco!" Rafael exclaimed, clearly annoyed by the cynical mare speaking to him at this point. Quickly, Rarity then turned her attention back to the three fillies, who were just as confused as her.

"Girls, would you mind telling me where you found this _thing_?" Rarity eeked out, putting extra emphasis on 'thing'.

"Hey, I'm a bird!" Rafael corrected, obviously a bit peeved by the comment.

"..._Bird_..." Rarity said with a groan escaping her mouth soon after this forced correction.

"Well, we found him just layin' here a bit ago." Apple Bloom started, oddly pointing to the spot where they indeed found the toucan a few moments ago, or, at least close to it.

"Yeah, and he's going to help us get our Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed cheerfully and excitedly. However, Rarity was a bit more skeptical of this.

"Really? Pardon me for asking, but how exactly is a bird going to help you get your Cutie Marks?" Rarity asked, the aforementioned skeptical tone gracing her accent like a seasoning over steak.

"Well...it seemed like a good idea..." Sweetie Belle muttered quietly, kicking at the dirt with her hoof realizing it sounded a lot dumber when her sister put it that way.

"We were going to bring him to Twilight and have her tell him all about Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo exclaimed, looking ready to carry out this plan.

"Really girls? Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for something you're going to get eventually, besides the fact that you're trusting...well, a bird for advice on getting your Cutie Marks," Rarity explained rather diligently. The three Crusaders rolled their eyes in near unison at the disapproval of their genius idea, while Rafael was planted with an annoyed expression.

"You have something against birds?" Rafael asked, rather annoyed by the patronizing he was being blasted with by this pony.

"I do when they start talking. Come to think of it, how _can_ you talk?" Rarity asked.

"...Do I have to run through the whole 'opening mouth' logic again?" Rafael said with a roll of his eyes and a chuckle.

"I'm not going to stand by and let myself get smart-talked by a bird." Rarity fired back with a stern expression, suddenly heated into the conversation.

"It's not my fault you don't get it," Rafael said with a smile, perfectly, one hundred-percent aware he was annoying the unicorn. Clearly, Rarity was blowing her top.

"What was that? Is this your idea of talking to a lady?" Rarity asked, now breaking out a rare glare from her arsenal of expressions.

"Nothing, _mi señora bonita_," Rafael responded with a smirk and a laugh.

"I don't even know what that means!" Rarity said with a frown as she stomped her hoof down in apparent anger. However, she couldn't help but wonder what the toucan had even said to her anyway. Fancier talk, perhaps.

"Guh, this is pointless! Can't we just go to Twilight and get this over with?" The always easily-annoyed Scootaloo groaned. All of the arguing was clearly going nowhere in the Cutie Mark Crusader's tasks. After all, they were an important group, right?

"Why? This is too much fun!" Rafael said with a laugh and a wide grin only capable of a toucan. Rarity, now simply annoyed by the toucan, simply let her expression deflate into a resounding groan combined with an extremely annoyed expression.

"...Let's just get this over with." Rarity said with a sigh as she began to walk off in the direction of the tree that Twilight Sparkle resided in.

"You heard my sis! Let's go!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed excitedly as she headed off after Rarity, followed by the other Crusaders.

"...This is the last time I agree to drink something out of a Styrofoam cup from the seagulls..." Rafael mumbled as he opened up his wings and flew after the 'crazy horses'.

Meanwhile, Sugarcube Corner was finally peaceful once more after the odd occurrence of a bird crash-landing into a Pegasus had passed. However, this quiet was quickly ended as soon as two small figures flew down into the street and began wailing wildly.

"AH! EVERYTHING'S ALL GIRLY!"

"RUN, AMIGO!"

Everypony's attention was quickly drawn to the two insane birds that suddenly fired through the middle of Sugarcube Corner like firecrackers into the sky.

As you may have been able to decipher, this was Pedro and Nico, reacting to the 'girly' place they'd realized they were in.

"Look man, I don't know how we got here, but I wanna get out!" Pedro exclaimed with clear terror in his voice as he grabbed his canary bud, who shared a mutual expression of terror.

"You think I wanna stay? Everything's all pink and stuff! It's like some bubblegum nightmare!" Nico chimed-in as the two buds clung to each other, sharing the same look of terror as they watched random ponies simply pass by, some shooting confused glances at the two birds.

"Look, we ain't ganna get anywhere sittin' here! Let's get our tails outta here!" Pedro exclaimed, trying to mask his terror by pasting a determined expression and tone on.

"Amigo, we don't know where to go. We're stuck in...in...Girlytown!" Nico said, his voice teeming with fear far surpassing fear he'd felt before as he grabbed Pedro by the wings and tugged him back and forth at every word to emphasis his point. Pedro shook his head with a fake grin, and then turned to look around at the town in front of them. Of course, as Nico had stated, the place looked like a girl designed it. Everything was cutesy, colorful, and frankly too adorable for Pedro's tastes. Heck, even the ponies looked too cute for their own good; at least, Pedro thought they were ponies.

"C'mon, let's ask for directions! Ain't reliable as GPS, but they're just as weird!" Pedro said with a laugh as he motioned one wing towards a random direction, the other embracing Nico, who glanced at his cardinal friend with a confused expression.

"...What are we looking at?" Nico asked, to which Pedro groaned and then more specifically pointed his wing tip towards a pony not too far away from them. In fact, it was a group of ponies. One was a delightfully-pink pony with a pink hide and a puffed-out mane to match, another was a purple-hued one, and seemed to have a horn on their head, and the last was an Earth-colored pony, who oddly enough was wearing a cowboy hat.

"...Weird sense of fashion..." Pedro muttered with a confused expression. Of course, the bottle cap-wearing canary quickly shot a glare towards Pedro, who then smiled sheepishly.

"Oh...right..." Pedro said with an embarrassed smile directed towards the insulted Nico.

"Yeah..._right_..." Nico stated, first with an aggravated tone, but then quickly flipping to a laugh as a grin formed on the canary's beak.

"C'mon! Let's get out of this horse town," Nico said as he made his way over to the group of ponies Pedro had pointed out. Without making a sound, the two small birds landed down on the back of the pink mare with innocent expressions, and then slowly began to whistle.

"So, you know how to speak horse?" Pedro whispered over with a confused expression. Nico glanced at his cardinal buddy in equal confusion.

"What? Horse is a dialect?" Nico asked with bewilderment clear in his voice.

"Of course it is, man! Horses don't speak bird! Now talk to her!" Pedro urged, pushing Nico toward what he could only assume was this pony's head.

"But I can't speak horse, amigo! I'm a bird!" Nico exclaimed with a look of terror gracing his expression. Pedro simply snickered at his friend's stage-fright.

"C'mon, bud! Scared of a little, pink horsie? Can't you speak a bit of pony-ish?" Pedro asked as he hesitated to think of what language ponies would speak.

"I can speak Pony-ish!" A loud voice suddenly rang into Pedro's ear drums, when he suddenly turned around to see the bright, blue, beaming eyes of the exact pink pony they were standing on. Pedro and Nico would've thought about how she could've possibly spun around so that her head was on the end Pedro was on, but the two chose instead to, of course-

"AHH!"

-shriek in terror.

The initial shock quickly knocked the birds off the pink pony, and both landed in the dirt on the ground, both grabbing each other like some men and their dogs.

"Hey! Are you two okay?" The same pink shape asked quickly and energetically with a wide grin.

"H-h-how did you did that?" Pedro asked in shock, while Nico still sat frozen with wide eyes.

"Oh, that's easy! I just turned around!" The pony giggled in response. Both birds couldn't help but notice the pure glow of energy this pony seemed to be omitting. All the energy and laughter that seemed to reek off the pony was ridiculous. Frankly, this procession of confusing events caused by this pony left both birds stuttering, trying to figure out a suitable response.

"...So uh, what are you ponies doin' right here?" Pedro asked half-casually, still shaken by the fact he was talking to a pink pony...

"Oh, we were just talking to some _crazy_ bird!" The pink pony responded cheerfully with a laugh. However, it seemed Pedro and Nico took offense to that.

"Hey! Who you callin' 'crazy'?" Nico asked with a half-glare, his expression still traced with terror. Instead of reacting any other way but happy, however, the pony giggled in response.

"...Well you are talkin' to a pony," Pedro muttered with a sly grin which he thought was under his breath, but the death glare on Nico's face assured the canary heard loud and clear.

"I'm not talking about you, silly! There's this other bird here that's talking about coming from another universe! Ha, crazy," The pink pony giggled and laughed out as she motioned with her hoof in circles, a symbolic representation of 'cuckoo'.

"Yeah, funny you say that," Nico chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck as if embarrassed to admit to the same situation as this 'crazy bird'.

"Ooh! Lemme guess! You're from another universe too!" The mare exclaimed excitedly with a wide, cheery grin. Nico and Pedro, still confused and somewhat frightened by this pink pony, both glanced bug-eyed at each other and then glanced back at the pony and nodded slowly.

"This is great! I get to throw three parties now!" She cheered as she suddenly pulled a balloon out of nowhere and blew it up until it fired off the pony's mouth and zoomed into the air. Both birds sat amazed, unsure at how to respond to any of what was just said by the pony. However, something in the head of both birds' heads clicked when the word 'party' was spoken. In fact, this seemed to be the case most times a party was involved. However, the two birds didn't want to tempt anything with a pink pony that was anything but normal.

"Yeah...that's kinda our problem," Nico muttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. After all, talking to a pink pony wasn't exactly easy in any sense of the word. Nico suddenly jumped when he felt something on the back of his head, and then realized it was his nerves getting the best of him, as it was simply his bottle cap. Pedro, meanwhile, chuckled at his friend's nervousness.

"Good start, Casanova. C'mon, ya ain't askin' her to the prom!" Pedro exclaimed with a witty tone and grin to boot. Nico, trying hard not to lose his cool, then spun back around to glancing at the mare in front of them.

"Excuse us a sec..." Nico said with a well-made smile and his tone sticking.

"Okey-dokey-lokey!" The pony responded cheerfully with a smile sweeter than honey. Nico spun back around to face Pedro, his face now a glare. The canary then grabbed the cardinal and brought the two into an odd two bird-huddle.

"Look, let's just play our cards right here. This is a pony! We can tell her we're kings or somethin'!" Nico started, refraining from smacking Pedro from his comment earlier. Something held him back, perhaps the need to just seem cute and charming.

"...But we ain't playin' poker!" Pedro objected. Nico groaned in annoyance, and then broke the huddle.

"Look, just follow my lead," Nico whispered with a straight expression. Somehow, that line seemed familiar to Pedro.

Nico fluttered back up to eye-level with the mare, and then plastered his best smile across his face.

"Back!" The canary exclaimed, the smile becoming tight on his small beak.

"Oh, hiya! I kind of figured you'd be back after you said you could tell me you're kings! Are you two kings, by the way?" She asked, full cheerfulness intact throughout along with a sweet smile. Nico almost dropped his wings and fell to the ground in shock, but he only managed out a wide-eyed expression, and turned around to face Pedro, who had a similar expression already occupying his beak. In response, Pedro only mustered a shrug.

"Well uh.. yeah!" Pedro piped-up, then receiving an expression from Nico that clearly read as 'SHUT UP'. However, Nico had already been dug into a hole, and it was time to dig out...

"Y-yeah! We're the most respected birds in all of our...kingdom!" Nico stuttered, trying to maintain a non-nervous expression and tone. Pedro then flapped up to Nico and decided to follow it up.

"Yeah, we fight the fight!" Pedro exclaimed, having suddenly armed himself with a stick and smacking Nico on the head, the impact with his bottle cap hat resounding with a rather noticeable clink.

"Ow!...I mean, yeah! We walk the walk!" Nico responded back, a wide grin forming as he quickly responded back by swiping his bottle cap off his head and smacking Pedro back. The two suddenly delved into a fight between bottle cap and stick, as they dueled with precision and...some sort of grace. The pink pony simply watched with the same huge smile, enjoying the show she was suddenly being provided with.

Quickly, Nico jabbed his bottle cap forward towards Pedro like it was Excalibur itself, and it made solid contact into the red cardinal's...rather buxom gut. Pedro was quickly dis-armed thanks to the impact, and before he could react in any shape or form, Pedro found himself pinned to the ground by Nico and his bottle cap, a grin across both of their faces.

"And we always, uhh...eat the food like a celery stalk?" Pedro said, his tone diminishing in its normalcy once he realized how lame he'd made the whole rhyme. Instead of pointing this out however, the two simply made rather cheesy stances to conclude their act. The pony, who'd watched the whole time contently, was already on the ground in stitches laughing.

"That was hilarious! It was almost like you were _actually_ acting out a bad sword duel!" She exclaimed in laughter. The two birds, now just plain wanting explanation, simply took the comment in stride and kept their grins tight.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Nico the Great." Nico said with a grin, and his best attempt at a dignified tone, which would come off as bad to a bird or pony who was familiar with acting.

"I'm Pedro the...Pedro the...Oh, Pedro the Greater!" Pedro said with wide grin and extra emphasis on his apparent 'higher status' to Nico.

"Hey! That ain't fair!" Nico objected, whining like a spoiled little kid.

"Then you can be my butler, Whimpy!" Pedro responded with a chuckle at his own brand of humor. Nico growled angrily, now losing his patience with his 'best bud', if he still could be considered such after this ordeal.

"If we're still playing, can I be Princess Celestia?" The mare offered suddenly, dropping her head down to ground with a grin.

"Wait...what?" Pedro asked, his expression filled with confusion (His expression had been filled to the brim with that today).

"She's a great princess, right?"

"Look, I'll come clean! We're just normal birds, from this place called Rio de Janeiro! We wanna get home. Can you PLEASE help us?" Nico shrieked, his voice filled with clear insanity and his expression broken wide-open into a crazed, wild look.

"Of course I'll help! I knew you were normal birds the whole time!" The puffy-haired pony responded with a smile. It was now Pedro's turn to don a wild-eyed expression, only this one focused in shock.

"Wait, you _knew_ we were normal birds?" Pedro asked in shock.

"Of course, silly! The author just wanted to see how long he could drag the scene out!" The mare giggled, the same pink pony that'd be receiving a note about her contract later that day...

"Wait, what?" Nico asked (or rather, screamed), with such a hoarse tone that he sounded unlike his normal, smooth self. This had been so mind-grating that he was losing his literally losing his mind and all sanity from this conversation.

"By the way, I'm Pinkie Pie!" The pony said with the same, mind-numbing, ear-sticking, cheery tone that gobbed through the two birds' brains the last 5 minutes as she reached out a welcoming hoof. Nico, who's left eye was wildly twitching, finally reached out a wing and then smiled with a smile that resembled one by a man by the name of 'Fred'.

"H-h-hi Pinkie Pie! I'm Nico!" Nico whispered with his still-hoarse voice as he slapped his wing on Pinkie's hoof . Pedro, however, somehow kept his sanity through this and slowly reached his wing and did the same with enthusiasm.

"Still Pedro right here!" Pedro exclaimed. Before the three could become any more acquainted, however, a voice from behind Pinkie Pie made itself heard to the two birds.

"Pinkie? What in the wide world of Equestria are you talking to?" The voice asked, the tone sounding quite knowledge and calm compared to the cheery and energy-filled one of this pink pony that had baffled the minds of Nico and Pedro.

"Oh, I'm just talking to my new friends!" Pinkie Pie responded, turning around and speaking to whoever the voice had belonged to. Pedro and Nico, already baffled by a good number of things in the last minute, weren't very surprised to then see a purple unicorn walk into view.

"Pinkie, those are birds. _Normal_ birds," The purple pony said in a intellectual tone as she focused her glance on the two.

"Oh no, Twilight! They were just talking to me now! Honest!" Pinkie Pie objected, pointing her hoof over to Pedro and Nico, who both smiled awkwardly as their gazes met with the unicorn's.

"What is Pinkie rambling on about now?" Another voice piped-in from behind the two ponies, this one sounding much more brash and scratchy. This pony revealed herself to be a Pegasus, colored in a cyan, or cerulean of sorts, with eyes that looked to be filled with the color of a dark pink. The most noticeable attribute about this pony, however, was the color of her mane. As far as Nico and Pedro could see, this particular mare's mane was colored in a dazzling pattern of a rainbow.

"Woah, too cool!" Pedro exclaimed as he flapped up to eye level with the rainbow-maned Pegasus as he observed the cool-looking pony, who watched him with a confused expression the entire time.

"...Pinkie wasn't lying. That bird is talking too," The unicorn said in bewilderment, her mind obviously racing in-thought judging by her thoughtful expression. Meanwhile, the rainbow-maned pony was busy...being weirded out by the talking birds eying her. It oddly made her feel uncomfortable for some reason or another.

"Uh, Twilight, these guys are creeping me out," The Pegasus finally stated the obvious as the two birds then landed, with perplexed expressions.

"_We're_ weirding you out? You're the blue pony with wings and a rainbow mane!" Pedro said with a wide grin, before his eyes quickly meet with the dilated and fiery glare of two pink eyes.

"And what's that supposed to mean, chump?" She fired back, now suddenly deep into the conflict as if Pedro and her had been enemies for decades.

"Who you callin' chump, _chump_?" Pedro responded back with a cocky grin as he came dangerously close to poking the pony with his beak. The Pegasus was about ready to show the cardinal a thing or two, but luckily for the two birds a certain purple pony intervened.

"Break it up, Rainbow Dash, and talking bird." The unicorn spoke up, and without warning Pedro felt himself being tugged backwards, likely by Nico. Pedro was about ready to turn around and shove Nico away from him, when he suddenly met with an odd sight.

Nico was a good 5 feet behind him.

"What the? AHH! I'm bein' possessed!" Pedro shrieked in terror, as he quickly began trying to flap his wings in desperation and fear at his levitation.

"Relax! It's only Twilight!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a laugh, nodding her head over towards the purple pony, who's horn was oddly glowing in a purple aurora.

"Uhh, what does vampires got to do with this?" Nico asked, rather confused by the notion.

"Vampire nothin'! How's she doin' that!" Pedro said, his voice still clearly marked with terror, the pony in question then shooting him a confused glance.

"What do you mean? Haven't you ever seen a unicorn before?" Twilight asked, her tone not much interrogative, but rather a "matter-of-factually" tone.

"No, but I've seen three talking ponies talkin' crazy talk," Pedro mumbled what he believed was under his breath. Unfortunate for him however, a certain unicorn heard him and he quickly dropped to the ground like a lead weight. The cyan pony then let out a laugh at the cardinal's expense.

"So, mind tellin' us where the heck we are?" Nico asked, staring off across the dozens of paths that crossed through the center of Ponyville that surrounded them. However, the canary received confused expressions all around, including yet another pony that appeared from behind the three, this one being the one donning the cowboy hat.

"What the hay is a 'heck'?" The blue Pegasus asked with a confused expression as she slowly hovered off the ground. This expression was shared along with the rest of the ponies.

"Look, we'd love to stay in Freakietown, but we gotta get back to Rio de Janeiro-" Nico muttered with a rash smile, ready to soar off to search for where he and Pedro came from, even though he had no idea if they'd be able to find Rio at this point. However, the purple-hued pony quickly cut him short.

"Wait, did you say 'Rio de Janeiro'?" She asked with a thoughtful tone with a matched expression. Both Pedro and Nico glanced at each other with odd expressions, and then stared back at the unicorn with terrified looks.

"Uh...yeah?" Pedro said hesitantly. They were afraid something was about to be revealed. It always turned out that way, the two figured.

"Well that's odd. We just found another talking bird a minute ago who said the same thing," Twilight Sparkle said, her expression twisted into confusion. It was all too coincidental, she figured. Then again, that's what she thought about the Pinkie Sense a while back.

"Wait, is that the crazy bird Big Pink was talkin' about?" Pedro quickly asked, his tone brightening. The cardinal was always up to see some insane-bird action.

"Big Pink?" The Pegasus muttered, her tone patched with a 'weirded-out' tone clear.

"...Uh, sure. If that's what Pinkie calls it." Twilight Sparkle answered, with a mutual confused expression shared with the Pegasus.

"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Pedro exclaimed excitedly as he quickly sped up to see beyond the ponies in front to see the 'crazy bird' he'd been craving to see. In the heat of his excitement, he quickly landed on the brim of the earth-colored pony and shoved it off in a frenzy of movement.

"Excuse me?" The pony spoke up, her voice marked with a Southern-drawl. Of course, Pedro could tell thanks to the many movies he'd seen with characters of such an accent...or rather, how Blu would point such stereotypes out.

"You're excused, valley girl!" Pedro answered back cheerfully with an excited grin on his face as he clamored up the cowpony's hat. As anypony would suspect, this small comment prompted a large frown on the pony's face.

"Man, I can't wait to see this crazy bird! She's probably all mangled and frothin' at the mouth!" Nico said with a big grin on his face as he fluttered up next to Pedro atop the pony's hat. As soon as they peered their little peepers over, however, both of their eyes were shot back like a cannonball in shock.

After all, who would've expected that 'crazy bird' to be a cerulean macaw?

"...JEWEL?" Both small birds yelped in shock. This received a clod of dirt to the face of both birds, courtesy of the aforementioned macaw.

"That's for calling me crazy," Jewel stated rather bluntly. However, the situation was quickly lightened as soon as Pedro jumped down to Jewel and hugged her with crushing force.

"Jewel! You're alive!" Pedro cheered gleefully as he continued his hug, this one being one of the bigger hugs he'd given. Given his size, that was saying quite a bit.

"Yeah! We thought you were dead!" Nico followed-up with a equally-large grin to Pedro's.

"Seriously. He ain't jokin'," Pedro stated rather seriously with a grim expression to boot. Meanwhile, the ponies were busy looking on with confused spirits and expressions to boot.

"Wait, you two know her?" Twilight quickly asked, now more confused than before.

"Unfortunately, yes," Jewel mumbled under her breath as the hugs continued to be handed out by the canary and cardinal.

"Yeah! We all come from Rio, land of...well, where we came from!" Pedro exclaimed, now running out of catchphrases to spout out.

"Pardon me, but is this 'Rio' some sort of snow country?" The southern-accented pony asked with a confused look. Nico quickly popped a smile on and went on with his schtick, one that always included his charm to it.

"It's the place where we came from! Land of sun, sand, and all the paradise a bird - or horse - could want!" Nico beamed with a smile wide across his rather small head. However, the 'horses' seemed less convinced.

"...We're ponies..." The cyan-colored Pegasus said with a hardened expression. Of course, that was hard to do with rosey eyes, but it usually worked anyways.

"Besides, you forgot the part about poachers and killer cockatoos," Jewel said with a sarcastic smirk. Nico glanced back with a look of confusion of why his friend was bringing his ship down.

"'Sides that, it's a pretty cool place," Nico added, trying to salvage his point best he could.

"Where exactly is this Rio place anyway?" The cyan-colored pony asked, still continuing to flap above the other ponies.

"Well...that was kinda what we were ganna ask," Nico said with a embarrassed laugh as he tugged on his wing in the same tense.

"Like I already told Jewel, I have no idea where this place called 'Rio' is. None of it shows up in any geographical records of Equestria." Twilight Sparkle fired out, her intellectual tone drowning Nico and Pedro's intellect by a country mile, both of them exchanging baffled expressions. Finally, Jewel let out a groan.

"That means that it isn't on any maps of wherever we are..." Jewel explained, feeling like a college professor speaking to monkeys as she explained. Quickly, the two smaller birds' expressions flipped to concern.

"Isn't on maps? Does that mean, Rio de Janeiro doesn't exist anymore?" Nico shouted, his expression and tone showing pure terror.

"Not exactly," Twilight said with a confused expression as she witnessed the canary meltdown.

"Yeah!...Wait, then _what_ does it mean?" The pink pony asked, her expression then flipping from cheerful to pure confused. However, this inquiry was interrupted by a call from a ways away.

"Twilight!"

The purple unicorn turned in the direction of the call in response, to clearly see the figure of Rarity running towards the huge group already-formed, only this time there could be seen the three 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' trailing behind, and a passing toucan, oddly enough. Twilight noted this was odd for Ponyville, as the closest toucans nearby resided in the Canterlot Gardens,and Fluttershy's residence.

"Oh, hi Rarity! Why are you in such a hurry?" Twilight Sparkle asked with a pondering expression. It was indeed odd for Rarity to be in such a hurry to talk to Twilight, unless it was for something fashion-related. This was not often, obviously.

"I was just finishing up some dresses when the girls here found this very odd toucan in front of my boutique," Rarity said with a hesitation, trying to not call the toucan by any other name.

"Toucan...wait a minute..." Jewel stated aloud, her tone quickly showing her annoyance and realization of who this mysterious bird was.

Before the fillies could point out the other talking bird, the toucan aforementioned appeared as it flapped out from behind Rarity, and looked around with a confused expression.

"Wait, so there's more of you?" The toucan asked, his tone rather puzzled.

"Is that..._Raf_?" Nico quickly said with a lightening expression as he glanced over at the toucan, realizing the looks were all too apparent to ignore. It was indeed-

"Rafy! You're alive!"

Both Nico and Pedro bolted over to Rafael with huge smiles gracing their face as they pounced onto the toucan, prompting a laugh from Rafael as he accepted the huge hugs from the canary and cardinal.

"Wait...ya'll tellin' me you birds know that there toucan too?" The southern-toned pony asked with a expression well-used throughout the last few minutes; confusion.

"Know 'em? We've known 'em for years!" Nico said with a laugh, overjoyed with the reappearance of all of their friends. However, he couldn't help but feel that someone was missing.

"This is uncanny! How can all you birds, all talking birds no less, know each other?" Twilight asked with bewilderment and surprise gracing her tone. This happened often, and clearly this conversation took part in that percentage.

"Birds of a feather stick together, don't ya know?" Pedro answered simply, not realizing his explanation...well, was not one at all.

"That doesn't exactly explain why ya'll can talk, or why you know each other, for that matter," the southern pony (her name was Applejack, so now you know) noted.

"The same can be said for you ponies," Jewel piped-in, her monotone and bored tone still present.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The Pegasus asked quickly and rather obnoxiously as she pushed her face right into the blue macaw's.

"From where we come from, you guys don't exactly talk or exist," Jewel fired back, her tone sounding more competitive now.

"I'll show you who doesn't exist!" The pony fired back, shoving her face into the macaw's.

"Dash, you're arguin' with a bird," Applejack said with a small smirk. 'Dash' then groaned with an annoyed expression at Jewel, and then folded her hooves in defeat.

"...Fine."

"Is anypony else here as confused as I am?" Twilight asked rather bluntly.

"I got lost after one bird talked. Now there's _four_?" Rarity said with a weirded-out expression across her face.

"I hate to break up the reunion, but aren't me minus one amigo?" Nico stated rather confused, when all four birds finally realized after a quick second of thinking.

"BLU!" All four said in unison.

"Quick! We gotta find Blu, pronto!" Pedro exclaimed as the four birds quickly scattered around in a frantic search of their friend.

Meanwhile, the ponies just sat, watching the birds in confusion as they scurried around like frightened ants.

"What are they looking for?" The cyan Pegasus asked, a more annoyed look on her face than a confused one at this point.

"Ay think they said somethin' 'bout the color blue," Applejack offered, her face just about the same degree of confusion as everypony else.

"What about the sky? That's blue!" The cheery, bubble gum-colored pony suggested.

"No no, you got it all wrong. Blu's my mate," Jewel said with clear annoyance with the ponies clear in her expression and voice.

"You lost your mate?" Twilight Sparkle asked with an odd expression.

"Yes, didn't I tell you this a minute ago?" Jewel responded.

"Yeah, but we were kinda still getting over the 'talking bird' thing," The Pegasus responded with a clever grin.

"What's there to get over? I don't know what planet you ponies come from, but it sure ain't ours," Pedro remarked, still finding it hard to get around the fact that he was talking to neon-colored ponies (who could talk back, no less).

"Right back at you. Now, let's find this bird's mate before-" Twilight began to try and rally her friends, old or rather new, before another pony came into the fray.

"Twilight! Twilight!"

Into view came yet another Pegasus, this one sporting a yellow coat and a pink mane, with blue eyes that astounded even Jewel in how bright they were. Then again, stress contributed to eye color fading, but she had yet to care.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle asked, her voice filled to the brim in concern.

"Something awful has happened! Just awful!" Fluttershy said with a same degree of concern. The Pegasus turned around, revealing on her back a rather familiar bird, in fact, even Jewel was close to realizing it.

"My poor friend Blu here lost his mate. We need to find her before the poor little bird feels worse," Fluttershy stated with all emotions showing concern. After all, it was in her spirit to love and care for her animal friends.

"This is really unnecessary. I'm sure I'll be able to find her by flying around wherever this-" Blu stopped dead in his tracks, as he suddenly caught his gaze onto a blue bird. In fact, it was a particular blue bird. It was-

"JEWEL!" Blu exclaimed, his usually-timid eyes bursting open into a joyous glow.

"Blu!" Jewel said back, her eyes widening in surprise and relief at seeing her loveable mate.

"Blu!" Both Pedro and Nico shouted as the four quickly flapped towards each other and embraced. Somehow, across a whole different universe, they had ended up back together. Problem was, there was ponies that somehow got involved.

"What just happened?" The cyan Pegasus asked with a confused expression, matching the other five ponies had.

"Seems like all these birds know each other," Twilight Sparkle suggested, her confused expression turning to a tad admirable for the cute display in front of the mares.

"Of course! We've known each other for quite a while!" Rafael said with a laugh, the memories of last Carnival still clear in his mind, the same time that Blu arrived and ended up bringing the five birds together as good friends.

"Pardon me Mr. Bird, but why aren't you joinin' in on that there group hug?" Applejack asked, to which the toucan grinned back.

"Amiga, I've had way too much of that stuff from my ninos to feel it again..." Rafael grinned.

"Either that, or he knows how powerful a hug from Pedro over here is," Nico commented, to which Pedro frowned at his smaller friend.

"Hey, no fat jokes!"

"I suppose talking birds aren't exactly abnormal from where you come from?" Rarity asked, her eyebrow perked.

"Look, you aren't exactly normal to us either. Let's please look past that so we can have an actual conversation," Jewel groaned, quickly tossing a confused Blu off her to answer the white unicorn's proposal.

"How's about some small talk? Let's throw some names around!" Pedro exclaimed, apparently excited to make himself known to everyone (or everypony, whichever one you want to use).

"Oh, that's Nico the Great and Pedro the Greater! Kings of their kingdom!" The pink mare exclaimed proudly. This received two looks of nervousness from a cardinal and canary, and a glare from two macaws.

"_Kings,_ huh?" Jewel asked skeptically, sharing a glare with her mate at the two.

"I ain't doubtin' it, but it doesn't sound like that's too true," Applejack commented.

"You're telling me. I'm Jewel." Jewel said, slapping a welcome smile on.

"Hi, I'm Blu!" Blu chimed-in, his tone clearly as warm and welcoming as it used to be.

"Oh, is that like a codename? Can I be Mr. Pink! Or is it Miss Pink?" The energetic, pink-colored pony said with excitement. This received a very frightened expression from Blu, along with a few grins from Rafael and Pedro.

"I'm guessing you know Pinkie Pie already." Twilight Sparkle said with a smile as she watched the pink pony bounce around. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm Rainbow Dash! The fastest pony out of Cloudsdale!" The cyan Pegasus said with a smirk and a smug expression.

"Applejack's the name!" Applejack greeted.

"..my name's Fluttershy..." whispered Fluttershy.

"I'm Rarity, if you must know," said Rarity.

"_Mi nombre es Rafael,_" said Rafael.

"...uh, can somepony tell me what that there bird said?" asked Applejack.

"That is to say, _my name is Rafael_," corrected Rafael, chuckling at the pony's confusion.

"So now that we have the introductions out of the way," started Blu, "can someone please point us to where Brazil might be?"

There was an awkward silence. Up to that point, everyone there but Blu knew that "Brazil" or "Rio de Janeiro" did not exist. Applejack broke the silence.

"Hate to break it to ya, pardner, but I never heard of Brazil," said Applejack.

"Ooh!" Pinkie Pie chimed in. "Isn't that the country that was in that one book with the bear? I heard someone's making a new one, with me and Twilight and-"

"It isn't in any geographical records, at any rate," said Twilight, sadly.

That did it. Blu had lost any sense of direction in wherever he was; Ponyland, was it? First, he found himself out of his paradise, then he saw that talking ponies, pegasi, and unicorns existed and talked, and now Brazil isn't even on the maps. It was too much for him. He started to tear up – something he hadn't done since he was a baby blue bird.

Noticing this, Pedro and Nico flew over to Blu's side and smiled.

"Aw, cheer up, Blu," said Nico. "We'll get through this...somehow."

"I'm- I'm alright," said Blu, nervously. "It's just – it's just that there's been so much to take in today. I don't know if I can handle it, especially considering that we're with colorful, talking equestrians."

"If we're going to handle it, we'll handle it together," suggested Nico. "It's not like we have anything else planned today."

Blu sighed, and said, "Alright. But we'll only stay as long as we need to."

He then flew up to the group of ponies, and said, "We'll stay in Ponyville for a while, but only until we can find a way back to Rio de Janiero."

"...but don't you want to stay...?" asked Fluttershy.

"As appealing as this place is, this isn't home," said Jewel, sadly.

"Alright," nodded Twilight. "We'll find a way to get you home, one way or another."

That day, no one was sure about what would happen with talking birds in Equestria, or with talking ponies with birds from another universe. Would they have many arguments, or would they remain calm? Where _did_ Blu and his friends come from? This confusion was best summed up in Twilight Sparkle's latest letter to Princess Celestia:

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_Today, we encountered a group of talking birds who claim to be from another world. We're as confused as you may be, but we plan to get to the bottom of this. It sounds like they want to return to wherever they came from, but it'll be hard getting them back._

_I will do some research as to where they came from and how to get them back. There may be some lessons in friendship to be had with our new acquaintances around._

_Your Faithful Student,_  
><em>Twilight Sparkle.<em>

**A/N: PHEW! FINALLY got this out!**

**Hope you enjoyed! I poured a ton of heart and soul into this, and after 2-3 months, I got this to you guys! I can only do this because you guys keep reading and showing your support! Keep commenting and reading, and I'll keep writing this story! Perhaps with even better pace next chapter around...xD**

**READ, COMMENT, REVIEW!**

**P.S.**

**Also must credit my best bud and Editor/Co-writer of this story Travis for finishing off the last bit of my story and editing the heck outta the story! Couldn't have done it without him, and I advise you to check some of his stories (TNelson711).**


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